The Double Hook: Penguin Modern Classics Edition [Paperback]

Widely considered one of Canada's first postmodern novels, marking the start of contemporary writing in the country, The Double Hook is now available as a Penguin Modern Classic.


     In spare, allusive prose, Sheila Watson charts the destiny of a small, tightly knit community nestled in the BC Interior. Here, among the hills of Cariboo country, men and women are caught upon the double hook of existence, unaware that the flight from danger and the search for glory are both part of the same journey. In Watson's compelling novel, cruelty and kindness, betrayal and faith shape a pattern of enduring significance.SHEILA WATSON was born in New Westminster, B.C., in 1909. She took her B.A. and M.A. from the University of British Columbia, and then taught in elementary and high schools on the B.C. mainland and on Vancouver Island. In 1961, at the University of Alberta, she was a founder and editor of White Pelican, an avant-garde journal of literature and the visual arts. The Double Hook was her first novel.1
In the folds of the hills

under Coyote’s eye

lived

the old lady, mother of William
of James and of Greta

lived James and Greta
lived William and Ara his wife
lived the Widow Wagner
the Widow’s girl Lenchen
the Widow’s boy
lived Felix Prosper and Angel
lived Theophil
and Kip

until one morning in July


Greta was at the stove. Turning hotcakes. Reaching for the coffee beans. Grinding away James’s voice.

James was at the top of the stairs. His hand half-raised. His voice in the rafters.

James walking away. The old lady falling. There under the jaw of the roof. In the vault of the bed loft. Into the shadow of death. Pushed by James’s will. By James’s hand. By James’s words: This is my day. You’ll not fish today.


2

Still the old laló|